Mychael Williamson, 18, and Angelo Perry, 22, each pleaded guilty to one count of theft of lost or mislaid property on Monday. Both were sentenced to one year of conditional discharge, which is essentially unsupervised probation.

The five, all members of the Traveling Vice Lords street gang according to police, were arrested after their van crashed near Addison and Lincoln early on January 6. Police say they found 24 stolen catalytic converters and a saw in the vehicle.

A Second Chance

Meanwhile, a woman who was charge with theft after allegedly breaking into a car near Wilton and Belmont—only to be found with her cell phone inexplicably operating in Japanese language mode—has pleaded guilty to attempted theft.

Nefertiti Ruffin-Hall, 21, received two years of "second chance probation." Charges were dropped against her alleged companion, Learthur Brooks.

"Police say they found 24 stolen catalytic converters and a saw in the vehicle."

"[E]ach pleaded guilty to one count of theft of lost or mislaid property."

LOL -- yeah, I hate all those catalytic converters that people are always leaving just laying around all over the place. It's worse than keeping track of your car keys. Why, you can't walk down the street without tripping over at least 5 or 10 catalytic converters that car owners have lost or mislaid.

Yep, with no real consequences for their actions, they will continue doing as always. So the victims and other honest folks get stung again. No surprise, that's justice today. Too bad the victims aren't as important as the misguided lads. Both such pleasant looking young gangsters, they certainly deserve every break available.

Is this the fault of the arresting officers and the initial charges? Or lack of victims willing to press charges? Or the prosecutors? Or the judge? Or is that part of a conspiracy to keep down the reported crime numbers? Where to begin...

Which means 67% of the 44th ward has their head up their ass. Sorry (not sorry)! Tunny may just be an alderman, but he is supposed to represent us, tell us the truth (we are knee-deep in crime, violent and otherwise) and he is supposed to fight to get us more policeman in the 19th district. Has he done any of that? The answer is no. He has outright lied to his constituents (his neighbors) and told them all is well and therefore made all of us sitting ducks. He's a man without a moral compass.

Exactly. What really burns me up is all the people they harmed....all the $$$ these folks will have to dish out to have their vehicles repaired....insurance or no insurance. Unreal that these worthless pieces of shit barely get a slap on the wrist and will commit crime after crime after crime until they either get shot of finally escalate to a very serious crime and finally go away for a long time.

Seems the criminals get to do whatever the hell they want, while law abiding, tax paying citizens continued to be victimized.

I think the bigger issue is the junk yards that buy these catalytic converters. They know that they are most likely stolen yet buy them anyways. These junk yards attract all sorts of criminals. The metal "scrappers" are always up to no good as well.

Each of the 24 thefts cost car owners a minimum of $500 and many $1000 in deductibles and the inconvenience of not being able to use their cars. These slugs know that they won't face jail time and they will continue their life of crime. It's what they know.

Honestly how would you guys imagine proving they stole the cat converters? There's only so much the DA has to work with.

Also I'd much rather have resource being spent on making sure there are fewer people getting guns pulled on them at 2am, than making sure your ipad you left on your driver's seat is still there next day.

traveling Vice Lords, you caught them with luck, don't let them go... come on. This was one night of activity. Can you imagine what a year of their shopping, gang banging, etc. looks like. When you get them keep them in jail. Just ridiculous. Gangs = anarchy.

my suggestion is to set up a car as a trojan horse on the street to bait these assholes when they resume their nocturnal metal gathering. Remove the lug nuts and set the tires right to the edge and replace the hubcap. When they crawl under the car to start sawing it will collapse on them.I'll bet that will be the last catalytic converter stolen in that area.

Wrong. Then the thugs would turn around and sue somebody, claiming "discrimination," "racism," "loss of potential income," and so on. You know how that goes. The worst part is that some lame-ass spineless judge would side with them and award them billions and hundreds and thousands of dollars.

24 catalytic converters, each worth about $500 for a total of $24,000 worth of stolen goods, and they plea guilty to a misdemeanor charge? Is it any wonder that crime pays? What kind of deterrence is this to keep from doing it again?

Be careful everyone tonight. Back each other up, going to be a busy Saturday night.A lot of down cars and one man cars Again??Same officers always taking the weekends off. Every weekend. Maybe this job isn't for some.Be safe listen up for the one man cars.